Ep. 827 Growing The field Of Hispanic Wine Educators | wine2wine Business Forum 2021

Talian Mind Podcast, a wine to wine business forum twenty twenty one media partner is proud to present a series of sessions highlighting the key themes and ideas from the two day event held on October the eighteenth and nineteenth twenty twenty one. This hybrid edition of the business forum was jam packed with the most informed speakers discussing some of the hottest topics in the wine industry today. For more information, please visit wine to wine dot net and tune in every Thursday at two pm Central European time for more episodes recorded during this latest edition of wine to wine business forum. Doctor and everybody. I'm Nadia Denato. I'm a producer from Verito from Verona, and I'm very familiar with the USA market. Because it's one of the most important market, for our wines. And, I am very excited today to share this panel with, Alberto, where, Alberto Martinez in Teriano, is a is a blogger, is a educator. And so I think it is a great opportunity for all of us to share to understand better about the Hispanic wine, Hispanic community. And, so, I really like to, ask her, so just for introduce you the characteristic of, the white Hispanic white and the community because maybe some of those, doesn't know about exactly. I mean, Hispanic wine and Hispanic company. So Great. That'd be happy to. Great. Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon, everybody. Yeah. So my name is Alberto. And, In the next thirty minutes, I'll be quite excited to share some insights about one of the fastest growing consumer segments in the US, and one that is relatively untat. There's an untat market that has a lot of potential for wine in general and specifically for Italian wine. So, with that, let's further ado, a little bit about myself. So as Nadia mentioned, one educator based in Seattle, also, I'm recently became in a, a, a, VIN Italy telling why I'm a bachelor too. And on the personal side, I was born and raised in El Salvador in Central America and have lived in the US for the last twenty years. So first, as Nadia was asking, who are these people? Who what's the what's the US Hispanic market? What's what do they look like? So the definition is anybody, any person whose origins are in Latin America or in Spain. So that's sort of the Latino or Hispanic market as I I just called. In terms of a few facts about who we are, in the last census in twenty ten, it is it was accounted for over fifty million people. And, that represents it is expected to grow in the next few years, in the next five, ten years to nearly sixty million. So it's a quite a sizable market. It represents close to sixteen people said about eighteen percent of the total US population. So that's roughly one out of six US consumers. And especially if you go to the younger people to children and teenagers, it's one out of four. So it's quite quite a, a relevant market. We see also that there's, this is the consumer segment that accounts for the largest growth in, population in the last ten years. And as of last census, more than half of the total population growth came from the Hispanic, consumers. In terms of, purchasing power, an interesting fact, as it shows here in this slide, is that over one point three trillion dollars of consumer spending power. And just to put it into context, that is pretty similar to what the entire consumer economies of in countries, like Australia, Spain or Mexico. So quite a sizable, spending power too. Finally, when we speak about the US Hispanic market, it's not really a monolith, just one single, segment that it's exactly the same. There are a lot of commonalities, but there's also, quite a few differences. First of all, as you can see here, just for country of origin, it's a wide and diverse space. There are people that have the origins in in Mexico and Central America and South America. So where they're coming from is quite diverse. Also, in terms of level of, acculturation or assimilation into the mainstream, society. There are people who are recent immigrants who have just a few years, and probably, Spanish continues to be their dominant language all the way to people who've been there, you know, sometime or even second or third generation where they're either at home, they're bilingual or sometimes most likely English dominant. And just like other segments in the US, there's also quite diversity in terms of age. We have generation x. There's also, you know, the baby boomers, people over fifty five years old and especially important, as we, as we've seen here, there's a large growth in the millennial and gen z space. So lots of diversity in terms of age, country of origin, and, in nationalities. In terms of the, the main markets where you can find this, yes, it's I think that we would say that Hispanics were pretty much on all fifty states, but mostly where there are some population centers that are urged, we find a large majority of them. In their four states, And when both coasts, there's California, New York, Florida, and also Texas in the middle who has, quite an important, hispanic population. So we've seen that, yeah, this is a large market that has been largely on top. And it it is there's a quite a an important source for growth in the industry. It, closely represents not only the present, but specifically the future what the future US consumer is gonna look like. One of the old assumptions that people think when they think about the average US consumer It is this kind of Anglo accent white, middle aged man, most likely. And, that is actually far from the truth. That was valid, maybe, you know, twenty, thirty years ago. But nowadays, it's changed. And it's probably gonna continue to change, into a more diverse, population. Not only that, but there's a couple of behaviors that are really relevant for the wine industry. One is, there's a lot of affinity already with, many wine growing areas, you know, South America, Spain, Italy, in terms of just culture, linguistics and especially either the lot of food similarities too. Main values are what I call the three f's family, food, and friends, and social interaction. And for those, Italians out here, you can see that there's a lot of similarities. There are many, many of the values that are shared with with the traditional Italian customs. And that's something that unlike the general US market, which is a lot more individualistic in a way, as a Latino's, we're we're a lot more social and friends and family. It's a it's a big part of a society. In terms of trends, wine consumption, it is it is growing. And as we see here, in the last ten years, regular wine consumption among hispanics has grown over fifty percent, and it's expected to continue even grow even further. There's also a higher willingness to pay compared to the general market. Think in a recent survey, over half of the Hispanic consumer said that they would spend more than fifteen dollars a bottle of our bottle of wine, which is about thirty percent higher than the general consumer. And finally, like many other sort of emerging markets, there's a lot of there's a quite an aspirational value, in wine. People, when they start drinking wine, it's sort of, a way of saying, I made it. And I'm sort of, I'm successful. And that's quite important, especially as, incomes continue to grow. Here are a couple of interesting data points in terms of, one is, one of the main criterias criteria that, when asked US Hispanics was about country of origin. How relevant is country of origin, meaning where the wine comes from? How important is that in the decision making journey? And it is really important for hispanics. A lot more is about forty percent versus thirty for the general market. So where the one comes from, as opposed to say, the style or the grape, it's it's very important. Not only that, but also in, this is a recent survey from the Wine Research Institute in in Texas that the they survey, Hispanic consumers and ask where what are your preferences depending on where the where the wines country of origin is? It's not surprisingly, about thirty percent said that US and especially California was sort of the the go to country for consuming wine. But then we see number two, far ahead of many other places is Italy with about eighteen percent. So and that's, even more so than other places that are either well known producers like France, or Spain, and even South American countries like Chile and Argentina. So there's a high preference already for Italian minds. As you see, there there's a lot of positive trends, but there are some potential barriers of challenges that could, limit this growth in in this market. First of all, starting with, just wine. It's familiar. It is part of kind of society, but it is not an everyday drink. Most of, hispanics consume wine, not really in a regular basis. The average consumption is about two and a half bottles per month, which is not that not a whole lot. In less than ten percent state that they drink wine daily. So, like other US consumers, wine is still mostly drunk as a sort of a very deep or cocktail before or after the meal. And, there was also some perceptions, somehow, I don't know, wrong, that Latin food doesn't necessarily pair well with wine. So one of the opportunities, there are a couple of opportunities I see here. One is just increasing that frequency and making more of a regular daily consumption. And that can be done by actually positioning wine as more of a casual drink that goes well at the dinner table to complement your meals, which is something that is quite familiar probably for, people in in, Italy and other European countries. Also there's, that perception that wine is more of as elite is really not for me, and there's some gaps of knowledge. People don't really know that much about wine in general and about Italian wine. So there's opportunities to educate this audience in many different aspects. And finally, this wine is not not the only player in this in this, in the in the beverage industry. There are other beverages that have been focusing on Hispanic markets for quite some time and quite successfully. Beer, in particular, spirits in general, and even sort of a new wave trendy drinks like horse seltzers most recently. So, here's where, I believe that there's a big opportunity for one educators in general to be the bridge that exists between this huge market of, future, potential con consumers and the wine industry. And there are multiple ways that, that we can do that. One is, by bringing that cultural relevance, which makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So far, you can reach those customers with a general sort of mainstream message, but there's an opportunity to be culturally relevant. And but now, I mean, things, like, for example, when given descriptors about wine, make it in terms and in descriptors that make sense for for hispanic consumers. For example, we when we hear about some wines that smell like poison berries and, gooseberries. There are some things that most people most haven't really, don't really know what that is. Right? That's more of a really Northern European type of fruits. So just bring it into some aromas and and, general descriptors and flavors that are more akin to what people can relate to. I think that's that's quite simple and easy to do. As I mentioned, education is key, so just getting lay of the land of where things are, and where is the wine coming from, it can go a long way towards just getting that registering that in in consumer's minds. And there's also the opportunity to do it with with food. And pairing that local pairings with local food, Latino food dishes makes, makes a lot of sense and can sort of start to get this, making more of a habitual drink. There's finally, there's a, an opportunity to sort of people relate and, and are more open and more, receptive when they look, you know, when when they look up to people who kind of speaks and look like them, and we see that if we see that the sixty, sixty year old, anglo Saxon man in advertising or any type of communications, it really doesn't quite register. But if we see somebody who looks and acts and speaks like them in their terms, it's there's a lot more potential to sort of make it that relevant. And, however, there is one thing that, There's only very few, and there's an opportunity to grow the number of Hispanic, one educators. Just an informal survey that I did right before this, putting as I was putting together this this presentation, in the large US, w set schools, only about two percent of, instructors and educators are Hispanic. So there are some we have some way to go in terms of increasing that number of people who can act as a bridge And, I mean, not only sort of forward educators, but anybody who's in contact with, with Hispanic consumers, whether that's, you know, some ideas or people who work in retail shops, distributors, and quarters, etcetera. Here's just a a small sample of some best practices, or some people who are doing, have taken a really great first steps to to do so. For example, I like to call out, there's an organization that recently was found the call Hispanic and wine, who is, that's basically a new platform to promote wine and wine culture among this audience. And, what they do is, one, they raise awareness overall in the industry awareness about about, just wine and to say that we're we're here, awareness of the Hispanic consumers, and build connections and build sort of a community of like minded individuals who appreciate wine and who sort of can serve as a as a snowball to get the to get that, cultural process going. And there are also, people who are doing educational initiatives and either promoting jobs within the industry. There's also new media, and special here, so millennials and gen zs are doing really interesting things to reach these new type of consumers in different ways that traditional education was like. For example, here, featured this guy called Roberto Rivera, which has a an Instagram and a YouTube channel called Roberto Court, and it's a series of videos that he creates to really promote more like educational videos about learning, about wine, about grape varieties in a more sort of informal fun, fun way that is really appealing to the millennial audience and even younger than that. And finally, to my right, there's another best practice of actually regional boards who are doing specific outreach to the market. And in this case, the CIBD or the comite de bordeaux, a few years ago, put together an open partner with this really well known, Latino chef and TV personality. And, put together this this new campaign called Viva Bordeaux, which was basically, a great online recipe in the in video series where, board of wines were paired with local Latin dishes. And it was a sort of a great way to sort of make board the wines which had seen for everybody and especially for Latinos were believed to be, not very approachable and sort of, out of reach and complicated. It made it a lot more, relevant for consumers, especially, pairing with local dishes. So, here are some takeaways that I'd like to leave, in terms of the the opportunity here. As we've seen, the US is a market It is. It is large. It is gonna get even larger. And though general consumer, you know, appealing to the just the general market works, there is a big opportunity to be culturally relevant with specific campaigns that target this audience. One thing that we already have, there's a big advantage about wine and about Italian wine, that there's already an affinity to it. There's a preference for Italian wines that can just be tapped and even grown further. And, we see the role of the wine industry in general and wine educators in particular as acting as this liaison as this link between the industry and this large, consumer base. In in terms of what can the industry do, there are many things. I would say that there are two main things that are so short, low hanging fruit, easy picks. One is to go out of your way to recruit and invest in his public talent. And that means, as I said, any type of person who has a cost consumer facing, role. And that means go and and fire and and find some ideas and retailers and distributors and importers, somebody who's who's already in touch with the the audience. It can sort of has a, as a head start in approaching, in approaching the Hispanic market. One way to do it, you know, I think that's been quite successful is via education. Education scholarships go a long way of getting these people ready who then can enter the industry and be, the advocates of your brand and of, the the wine industry in general. And there's also the opportunity for wineries for consortium or for any other, player in the space to do some specific cultural relevant outreach. And but that, it's as easy as a green fencing or allocating some funds specifically to targeting the the Hispanic consumers. And, we can see that there is a large opportunity and, the potential for a really big payoff down the road. So with that, I think that just wanted to thanks again for the time, and I'm really open to any questions. Thank you, Alberto. So, before maybe to ask, to the panel and make some questions, I I have a question for you. So, more and more the USA, culinary, market is influenced by, of course, it's, Hispanic chefs and restaurants, you know, in American. What needs to be down to attract the larger Hispanic customer to consume wine in that in this restaurant or another beverage? Yeah. I think that's that's a great way to get started. Because mostly, it's a Hispanic community. Yeah. And we've seen in the last few years that there's been a boom of overall sort of Spanish and Hispanic culinary scene, which started with, you know, tapas bars and it made it all the way to now fusion and Latino fusion cuisines. So I think that there's an opportunity very similar to what, say, CIBD pioneered in a way in terms of partnering with some of the well known chefs and people in the industry and in doing this type of, marrying the the the wines, your wines with some of the cuisine. And as we've seen, Yeah. There's still that perception that Latin food doesn't pair well, which is couldn't be farther from the truth. So just, partnering with some, you know, champion either, you know, some chefs or well known chefs In especially, I would say, in those four key Hispanic markets in, you know, Miami, for example, or Los Angeles or New York or San Francisco or even like Dallas and Houston and Texas, those specific markets that have large community pioneers in terms of restaurants and, and, overall wine bars and and doing something proactive to do that. I think that that's that's a great way to get in Italian wine's known and really bearing it with a with a local food. Yeah. Because, in the past, you know, that for the Italian wines, the proposal was a Italian restaurant, you know, so and I think about what you say before is a new trend, there's a new opportunity or so for our wines for Italian wines to start with uh-uh this new community. So I think, so thank you for, your explain also about this And then And just to add to that, yes, I think that not only that, but there's other as he two other benefits in Italian wines that preferences from Hispanic consumers, they like either on the red side, this room. Bold, fully, fruit forward, wines. And there are some Italian wines that are that fill that profile that initially can be the good bridge into getting into the Italian, you know, wine, wine seed Also, the Latin Foods are heavy on sort of, or acidity. We we're not afraid of acidity, and there are some, like, we use lemon and lime and that type of thing really well, which goes pretty, pretty well with some Italian white white wines. So I think the opportunity is both for whites. Yeah. Great to provide. White and red, and they do very really well with with some Italian. Alright. Okay. Sorry. No. And, also, the the largest Hispanic community is more, in California. I think, you know, Utah. And California also is famous because there are a lot of wineries, nowhere, they produce, wine. So how can Hispanic locators help to direct more wine, a consumption, to be Hispanic, a communi communicative. So, yeah, I think that that's right. And the probably default is that people will go for California wines as we saw earlier, that's the number one in terms of preference. But, Italy right after. So getting to know Italian Italian regions in a little more detail and having people ask about, versus say what people know with the default, which is Chardonnay in in cabernay, that that is that is a challenge that I think people are, especially, as we saw, that, hispanics are interesting knowing more and getting outside of the the California, the traditional California scene, which is great, but then there's opportunity to just by by educating them on the native grapes of Italy and educating them on the on the main regions of Italy and tying that to the history and the and the the territorial, that goes a long way out there. Yeah. Also, because of Italy, we have a lot of origin with a different, variety of grapes. And also, I think, is a great opportunity. And, do you think about, the best way to promote is, of course, is, the social or, also, but are other way to to promote, of course, our wines and, in this particular moment after the pandemic, period, what do you suggest? Yes. I'll say yes and yes. Yeah. I think that nowadays we found that online and social, there it there's no way back. Yeah. It is. It is there and it's there to stay. And not only for sort of the newer audiences, new generation, but pretty much for for all consumers. So, yes. But there's opportunities once sort of the, Oreka Okay. Oreka comes back to to bring it into being a player in your marketing mix as well. I think social, it's for here and probably during this transition period would be quite important. But then having that sort of in person live experience, either partnering with similar players in other industries makes a lot of sense too. But social is probably the one that is, initially, it's it's less of an investment and and makes a lot of sense for making different. Okay. Thank you, Alberto. I don't know if you there is some question, from from your panel. Do you have any question to Alberto? Yes. Hi. And, thank you for a great presentation. I'm Julianna from Plangelo and Partners. I was curious to see that Italy is so much higher in terms of consumption percentage than Spain. Think I I I would think that the Latino market might have an affiliation with with Spain or just some affinity towards that category, any thoughts on why Italy, and I'm I'm happy to see it. The white Italy is performing so much better than Spain when it comes to consumption among this, population. Yeah. I think that that was an interesting finding even for me too. And, not only to Spain, but to to other markets, to other countries and, you know, Argentina and Chile, which probably many many people are coming from. I'll say that, yeah, the so there is probably an on the positive side, there is the ease of, familiarity with the with the Spanish, and you can read the label and so you can figure it out. So there's a positive on that. But, I think that there's Italy has that sort of aspirational value of something new and unique, and you feel a little, yeah, more than more than just the familiar. And I think that's a that's a value that that Italy brings, that there is a this aura of Italian products in general. And that also applies to wines in terms of, perceptions of, of prestige and quality and, you know, in a way fashion, I would say, but that's, that's those are the or, the the the Italian made in Italy has, that it has has trickled down into into Hawaiian. I think that that's that's another area what people would prefer that, which also was a price, but it's it's great to see it that it's it's, it's so high even, you know, second, not only after the US. My name is David Killon. I'm from Latoya. I'm Italian wine ambassador. We teach together. Starting and I get the same. Could you please, uncover one, your, like, recruit and invest in local educator. Mhmm. What kind of, in details? What is your, let's say, vision of this, let's say, movement. How how how again, you are producer and probably you are in the consortium. Maybe also you are tell your opinion how it could be possible to connect because, of course, we have a in each country distributor of wine, and we also have a wide distributor, the, that teach, let's say, in Horica, so familiar, but they teach, let's say, how to sell their wines. So sometimes, I'm also I have my wine club and, I have my visitors. And I see some time that, for example, about a maroni. If one distribution have one, let's say, producer of a maroni and this Amaroni, the this producer produce in, let's say, big body style. They teach, oh, let's say, step down and down till customer that amaroni should be But of course, I know that Ameroni in my bank lab are sometimes showing five, six, seven, several label that this could be smooth. Let's say, is it drinking? Yes. Relative for Ameroni. But not the only one. So, of course, I'm teaching to but I I I think that maybe the help of consortium producer and educator could be Close. Close. Yeah. And it's helped to everyone. So I think they just opened this. That's a really good question. I think, you know, in my opinion, it depends. It varies by how close you are to the consumer. Right? Some people can do it directly, meaning you work in a, in a retail shop. That's probably the easiest way. We make sure that if you live in a in a highly Hispanic market that you have people who reflect what your audience and your customer base looks like. That could be also the same for, say, if you work in a as a distributor, maybe make sure that at least go out of your way. And if if, those markets are important for you, then you still have a few people who can relate to that and can definitely have that additional value that they bring. For other, I'm sorry. For even, like, wineries probably, it's not as easy or, you know, Italian wineries, that don't have a direct contact, but just, you know, it doesn't hurt to ask if this is important to say, hey, just, try to bring it up as a possibility that do you do in markets where it's relevant that, people that you work with have or have a good rep representation of what the end audience and the consumer looks like. I think that's a positive thing. So I think it it all depends And another way is, like, for example, like the, like a Pordeaux board did, which they actually hired someone, you know, became sort of an ambassador in a way, that had already connections with the the the the market. And made it made that sort of liaison directly and say, okay, this is how yeah. You know the audience that you know the what they prefer, and let's sort of bring it and make it approachable. So I think it all is not super easy. It depends on where in the value chain you are. But even if you're removed from that, there's something you can do just to ask your importer or distributor. Hey. Yeah. The US attending market is important. How many sales reps or many people that that represent that group is like? Yeah. I don't know if you have any other thoughts. I I think I I agree with you. So it's a both have to, to do something for help to promote, so for example, when I grew to the USA market, I do myself with our importer. And I go to visit, and I I tell the story about, my my wine matters about my, my winery so help to, to increase, to to push, and not only the patient, the story of the family, but also the territory. So I think is, is important, you know, and, we need also the the the ambassador because when the producer can go always, to visit the the echo or the one player. But we need also the ambassador that the transmitter, the importance, you know, of our philosophy, our wise and I think it's important. This is a network. Yeah. It's very important. Okay. So, well No. I have another question, but I can see. Yeah. So we are here in, in Italy. So is, important fair, his vision, And, so we hope that, in the near future, we have a possibility to have, a lot of tourists come to visit the the Italian Italy country. So do you think about the, for example, the Spanish you see that the Italian wise is important because it's after the USA. So do you think that we need to do something for to, to promote our country So we need to do, also for advice to to to see, to come, to visit the of a winery, you know, that for, all the Italian produces, very important for hospitality, you know, to have the opportunity to show our, our passion, our unwindly. And, so do you think that there is something that we can do for, increase to to come to visit, the this type of Hispanic community to visit us? Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that the people people people in, you know, hispanics are interested of getting beyond that and knowing what's out there. And especially in Italy, there's a a lots of appetite for knowledge and for, you know, not only the where where the wine comes from and how is it made and what what are the place looks like. So, yes, by, promoting that one educating them on the different regions and what's what's unique about each one of them, where the, what, you know, the key grades, and eventually make it possible to have mind related trips, to the the main wagrown areas. I don't think that necessarily you need to do something specifically in in the in your in in the winery, but just getting to that process of once getting them, become aware of that way that is, and then, promoting the the place getting getting the top of mind of, oh, and I think if I really wanna go to Venator and I know that I'm gonna try this amazing amount on it, for example, as a way of of a seed planting that seed that there's a lot of receptivity that people would then we wanna travel and and seed firsthand. So, yes, absolutely. And I think there's a lot of work that can happen before, just to get him interested. And then they they once I get here, it'll be an amazing experience. But, yeah, and there there's there's a a lot of potential for that too. Yeah. Thank you. And what is the favorite, wine, Italian wine, you know, is it north? Is it north or south Italy? So I don't know specifics. Well, yeah, with the some of the surveys has that more of the actual bigger bolder, fuller bodied wines are probably they're the most initially approachable. So I think that's a combination of, either, you know, wines from from the south, from Sicily and Puia, and also, bigger ones like a marrone in the sort of, trunello. Yeah. Yeah. So it's I think that, yeah, it's initially more of the four styles. And then the next level is getting to a little more nuanced and complex, both both reds. And and rights, and even sparking. So, yeah. Oh, okay. Future for that day. Most likely, I'll say that prosecco cannot be discounted. Yeah. But we need to promote that every region, produce also, as sparkly wine. Oh. Yeah. And I think that, yes, that is increasing that more of a daily consumption, which is probably the difference with the, say, you know, Italian communities, which is part of their meal in Italian American communities, that's something that once you get to that point, then It's just a an entry into all the styles and all the the great things of a Italian wine. Perfect. Thank you, Alberto. Thank you everybody for, coming to this, panel. So thank you very much. And, we hope, to see you all there to end all of you next year at, in Italy twenty twenty two. Yeah. I look forward to it. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, email, IFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating italian wine podcast dot com. 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